PROJECT

Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
(…) May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well-loved one,
Walk mindfully, well-loved one,
Walk fearlessly, well-loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
Be always coming home.
– Ursula K. Le Guin from Always Coming Home, 1985

In Sangam Sharma’s previous video essay Another Europe, she began to examine the connection between places and identity, trying to understand her space in place. Building on this piece she wants to expand these ideas and continue to explore the concept of home in different ways and mediums.

The concept of home is approached from a queer and ecofeminist point of view, challenging familiar positions while focussing on the transformative elements. She offers a change of perspective while thinking about practices and structures.

“What does my fondness and longing for unknown places say about my own identity and how do I relate to the space I am in? Is place integral to identity?“

Sangam tries to read and understand her queer mixed-heritage identity in line with a more global shift towards a nomadic sense of community, looking for pockets of belonging in multiple spots. Dropping in and out of places, transnational fluidity as a way of life (which used to be our lives). 

She wants to focus on the potentials of home, community and kinship and outline alternatives where there is a space for everyone and there are multiple ways and paths. Working with photography, text or titles as well as other elements, she creates (mixed-media) works that show unknown places (by blending in existing ones), creating different worlds altogether (proposing a new outlook). What’s a different way to think about how images are composed and read?

The title of this work is borrowed from a book by Ursula LeGuin, an author of speculative fiction working on the very foundation of ecofeminism. She created an astounding oeuvre weaving together history and myth, fable and poetry, story- telling and song, relishing intricate world-building – Utopia as a method.

Sangam’s work shall be made via low carbon methods using low energy principles. She wants to consider sustainability, ecological awareness and responsibility.